Getting Her Back
by Kat Ducat
Summary: Luna couldn't stay at Shell Cottage forever, so, of course, she was moved to a safe house. Specifically, the house of Great-Auntie Muriel, where Ginny was also staying. It would be an understatement to say that the girls liked each other. Ginny/Luna, femslash. For autumn midnights.


_A/N: This is a late birthday/early Christmas present for autumn midnights. I'm sorry it took so long; hope you like it!_

)O(

"Luna!" Ginny's cry rang out in the still winter air. All Luna saw before she was almost toppled to the ground was a bathrobed figure and a wave of red hair which almost hit her face. She was gripped in a tight embrace, vice-like. Ginny didn't let go even in spite of the glances they were getting from the other people gathered in the hall.

Luna patted Ginny lightly on the back. "Ginny, I'm glad to see you too, but it's getting difficult for me to breathe."

Blushing, Ginny pulled away, but still didn't let go of Luna. She was grasping the blonde girl's hand as if there was nothing in the world that could make her let go. She said nothing, lost for words.

As if to help her, Luna spoke, "I'm all right now."

"But you weren't," Ginny croaked. "I thought you might be dead. When they took you away, on the train, I was sure they wanted to-" she broke off and sniffed.

"I'm all right."

"You'd better be. If they did anything to you-"

"There was no lasting damage. Anyway, Bill and Fleur took good care of me and Mr Ollivander."

"Oh...right." At the mention of the wand maker, Ginny was brought back to Earth. She turned her head, taking in the fact that the other occupants of her Aunt Muriel's house were staring at her with a mixture of surprise, confusion, and even shock on their faces. Aunt Muriel especially was staring at her great-niece with disgust written in her features. She had pursed her lips and was giving her a cold look that clearly said "I-know-exactly-what's-going-on-young-lady-and-there's-going-to-be-nothing-of-that-in-my-house-so-mind-yourself."

"Why don't I show you and Mr Ollivander to your rooms?" Ginny said, changing the subject.

"You'll do nothing of the sort. Go sit back down at the dinner table and finish eating your supper." Muriel said, smiling primly at Ginny. She beckoned to her with one of her long, trailing sleeves and made as if to catch and entrap her. Ginny, being the agile Quidditch player that she was, evaded her easily and skipped around to stand next to Luna again.

"I think I could be of more use being hospitable to our guests, Auntie. I'm sure they would like some rest. Anyway, I thought menial jobs like this aren't suited to you."

"I won't have you telling me what to do, girl. Do as you're told or you'll have to face the consequences." Muriel barked. She and Ginny were now in their own little world, staring at each other like sworn enemies, trying not to blink. Into the middle of this butted Mr Ollivander, who was a mild man at worst, but even mild men have their moments of assertiveness.

"My dear Mrs Prewett, I'm sure that Miss Weasley here would on a usual day be doing something different, but this, as you can see, is not a normal day. I would be most gratified if she could lead me to my room. This body is not as young as it once was, and I'm afraid it needs more rest than a normal one. I'm sure you do not suffer from that however, may I say that you're looking very well tonight?"

Muriel, startled by this sudden show of kindness, gave a half-smile-half-grimace and replied, "Yes...yes of course. Ginevra, show Mr Ollivander to the green bedroom. I suppose you and Luna here will have to share. I don't have enough rooms to be running a hostel," she grumbled.

Ginny smiled widely and took Luna by the hand once again. With a skip in her step, she tripped up the stairs, not looking behind her. When she got to a green door, the first in the corridor, she opened it and stood aside to let Mr Ollivander enter. He did so, and thanked her.

When he'd gone in, she closed the door behind him, trying not to slam it even though in her excitement she couldn't bear to wait any longer. She ran the few feet across the corridor to what was her own room, behind a door decorated with daisies. Before she opened it however, she turned to Luna, who was still holding her hand with a bemused look on her face.

"I didn't know you missed me that much," Luna said.

"I've missed you worse than I've missed anyone. I couldn't bear to think what they might have been doing to you—," Ginny grimaced, before leaning in to quickly kiss her. "Come inside and then you'll _really_ see how much I've missed you," she said, grinning again.

Ginny opened the door and stood back to let Luna walk through first. When the other girl had gone in, she walked in after her and closed the door as silently as possible. Luna was standing in the middle of the room, looking around at the pictures adorning the walls.

"I tried to make it a little more friendly," Ginny said from behind her. It hadn't been easy. When she had arrived, scared and unsure of what was going to happen next, she had expected to be comforted, to have someone tell her everything was all right and give her a hot cup of tea. Instead she had met Auntie Muriel, who had told her to pick any unoccupied room she liked and stay in it. Ginny had stumbled into this one.

It was dark, with a single dirty window on the wall. Muriel couldn't clean anymore it seemed, what with being so old and generally never having liked cleaning anyway. She was too cheap to hire anyone to take care of the house too. The curtains were rough and moth-eaten. The wardrobe was dusty and uninviting. The bed had stains on it which Ginny didn't like the look of. Needless to say, it did not reassure her as to the safety of the world.

But when she was left alone for hours at a time, she had started to try to reassure herself. She had learned a lesson from all the cleaning she had had to do at number 12 Grimmauld place and tried to remember the charms and potions she had used. When she had heard that they might be getting visitors, she had hoped that maybe there was a slight chance that it was somebody she knew, somebody that she could spend time with. She had redoubled her efforts and started tidying with greater fervour than before. She was sick of being alone. If only there was someone who could sit in this room with her and wait for news from the Order, then maybe life here wouldn't be so bad.

Now that Luna was standing here, looking at the room Ginny had made liveable, she felt a little spark of something that could be called pride for her handiwork. She never would have believed it if anyone had told her before that she would once be proud of being a good cleaner. That wasn't who she was.

But wartime changes people, and sometimes, they have to find happiness in the most unexpected of places.

"It looks lovely," said Luna, turning around to smile at Ginny. "I like how you've covered the picture frames."

Ginny coughed. "I thought it would be best. Some of them are men, for Merlin's sake. I tried to take them down, but Auntie raised a row about how they were her ancestors and that I should respect the dead because they did a lot better job of being good people than anyone who's still alive in this family. So I just covered them. I don't think she knows."

"Your Auntie is very funny," Luna said.

Ginny laughed, "I'm sure she doesn't mean to be but yes, she can be pretty amusing. Especially when she gets all red and starts ranting about how old she is. You'd think she wouldn't want to talk about things like that."

Luna gave her a small grin, and walked back towards her friend. "I don't think you brought me here to talk about you Auntie, Ginny."

"Oh. No, not at all. I just-I'm so glad to see you Luna but-"

"You lost your lust when you came in, I think. Did you train of thought get derailed? That happens to me sometimes." Luna took Ginny's hand in hers and brought it up to her lips, kissing it. Then she turned it over and looked at her palm, examining it.

"I can see something of your future."

"What is it?" Ginny was completely mesmerised by Luna's stroking of her palm. _Her_ skin was soft, and when it came into contact with Luna's rough hands, all she wanted to do was grab it and kiss it better. She couldn't stop thinking about what could have happened when they had been apart.

Luna frowned. "I don't think you would take it well if I told you."

"Luna, you can't just say stuff like 'I can see something of your future' and not expect people to ask what you can see," said Ginny.

"All right, I'll tell you, but I actually didn't know what I was seeing when I said I could see something," said Luna matter-of-factly.

"What? So you just said it without knowing what you were going to say next?" Ginny knew that she shouldn't be surprised by _anything_ at this point, but she couldn't help it. It was impossible to not be baffled by Luna, even if you had known her for years.

"Yes."

"Why? Actually, you know what, never mind. I won't understand anyway," Ginny sighed. "Now tell me what you saw."

"I saw you marrying Harry," replied Luna, looking up at the other girl.

Ginny gasped and took a step away from Luna, staring at her in horror. She managed to choke out, "That's rubbish. I would never do that. You know I wouldn't! Harry's all right, but he's not _you!_"

"I'm just saying what I saw. It's possible I could be wrong."

"Yes—you probably are wrong. Professor Trelawney wasn't a very good teacher, so she must have messed something up when talking about palm-reading. She must have!" Ginny couldn't even imagine marrying anyone but Luna, especially not Harry. He was far too absorbed in 'doing his duty' to spend enough time with her, and she suspected that if he learned more about her, he wouldn't need encouragement to stay away from her. Morally, he was a much better person.

"I think you might be right, actually. My eyes might not have fully adjusted to the real world yet." Luna smiled and sat down on the bed.

Ginny gasped and mentally slapped herself on the forehead. How could she have forgotten to ask about Luna's kidnapping? Really, how?

It was probably because the blonde girl jumped topics so quickly that Ginny got interested in every one of them, and couldn't keep up.

"Luna, I want you to tell me everything," said Ginny decisively, sitting down on the bed as well. "If you're all right with talking about it, of course," she added, less decisively.

"It's not very interesting, I mostly just sat in the cellar and talked to Mr Ollivander," Luna shrugged.

"If it comes from your lips, Luna, I'm sure that every word of it will sound exciting. Now go on, I want to know what they did to you so I can curse them later."

And so the two girls spent the entire night talking, instead of doing what Ginny thought they would do when she finally got Luna alone with her after so much time apart. Of course, that just meant that they had the next night absolutely free to do _whatever_ they wanted…

In the next few days, Ginny's life improved a great deal.

)O(

_Fin_


End file.
